Folding wall shelf

ABSTRACT

A folding wall shelf having bracket means for mounting on a wall and pivotally carrying means adapted to swing outwardly therefrom for defining an inclined writing support, the shelf further including pencil holding means and means for temporarily cradling a telephone handset at a location away from the regular telephone cradle.

United States Patent [1 1 Waldecker [451 Dec. 4;, 1973 FOLDING WALL SHELF [76] Inventor: Donald E. Waldecker, 3250 Cambridge CL, Fairfax, Va. 22030 [22] Filed: Mar. 17, 1972 w 21 Appl. No.: 235,755

52 US. Cl. 211 90, 248/447 [51] Int. Cl. A471) 97/04, A471" 5/08 [58] Field of Search 211/90, 96, 99, 69.1, 211/86; 248/455, 456, 454, 457, 452, 441, 293, 447

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 511,741 12/1893 Owen 248/455 1,893,976 1/ 1933 Anderson 248/447 2,355,653 8/1944 Joyce 248/447 1,108,963 9/1914 Andree 248/447 1,658,891 2/1928 Gauck 211/86 1,797,889 3/1931 Wiberg 248/454 1,963,721 6/1934 Smith..... 248/293 X 2,080,591 5/1937 Wright 248/452 2,219,091 10/1940 Henderson. 248/456 2,472,058 6/1949 Artley 21 l/86 X 3,043,047 7/1962 Fleur 248/454 Primary ExaminerRamon S. Britts AttorneyGlenn E. Wise [57] ABSTRACT A folding wall shelf having bracket means for mounting on a wall and pivotally carrying means adapted to swing outwardly therefrom for defining an inclined writing support, the shelf further including pencil holding means and means for temporarily cradling a telephone handset at a location away from the regular telephone cradle.

9 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures 1 FOLDING WALL SHELF BACKGROUND or THE INVENTION This invention relates to a device adapted to be mounted on a wall for defining a writing shelf adjacent a telephone, and includes means for holding a pencil in readily accessible position, and means for temporarily cradling a telephone handset in a position away from the cradle and disconnect of a telephone.

The shelf includes a wall bracket adapted to be mounted directly on a wall and means pivotally supported from the bracket in a manner permitting it to swing outwardly so as to define an inclined writing support. Pivotal prop means are operative between the writing support and the wall bracket for selectively supporting the writing support in inclined position or for permitting the support to swing or fold into adjacency with the wall bracket.

The writing support includes bar means along one side for threading through the spiral binding of a notebook for holding the notebook in writing position. Means are also provided for selectively holding the pages of the notebook flat to prevent curling thereof when desired. Further, means are provided which serve a dual purpose; first, of preventing the notebook from sagging, and secondly, of providing a wrist or palm support pad for a writer.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of this invention to provide a wall shelf having a writing support for use adjacent a telephone.

It is another object of this invention to provide a wall shelf having a selectively positionable inclined writing support; a pencil holder; and means for temporarily cradling a telephone handset away from the cradle of the telephone of which it is a part.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a wall shelf defining a pivotally mounted inclined writing support for holding writing material, such shelf having means for selectively retaining the support in writing position or permitting the support to be folded into adjacency with a wall bracket.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be more fully understood and further objects and advantages thereof will become apparent when reference is made to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention and the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of the folding wall shelf shown mounted to a wall with. the writing support thereof in inclined, or use position;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation view of the wall shelf with the writing support shown in closed or non-use position;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken generally along lines 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the mounting for the spiral ring binding as shown in FIG. 3; and,

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken generally along lines 5+5 of FIG. 2 showing the arrangement for holding pages flat to prevent curling thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT This invention relates to a folding wall shelf for holding writing material on an inclined writing support and having pencil holding means and means for temporarily supporting a telephone handset. The shelf is particularly adapted for use near a telephone where ready accessibility to a pencil and writing material on a writing support is desirable. Means are provided on the shelf for temporarily supporting a telephone handset out of its telephone cradle position without disconnecting the telephone circuit.

Referring to the drawings and particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2 there is illustrated a folding wall shelf generally identified by the numeral 10, having a wall mounting bracket 12 and a writing support 14. The mounting bracket 12 is adapted to be mounted in an upright position, such as by screws 15, on a vertical wall or the like 16 (shown in phantom). A small screw-driver access hole 17 is provided in support 14 as an aid in installing the top screw 15.

The part defining support 14 is pivotally carried by a headed rod 18 on bracket 12. As shown in FIG. 1, element 14 is adapted to pivot about this rod 18 for swinging outwardly to an inclined position for defining a writing support.

A prop 20, of generally U-shaped configuration, is pivotally mounted by its free ends in apertures 21 in the depending side walls of support 14. Heads 22 on the ends of prop 20 prevent lateral shifting of the prop. The bight end of U-shaped prop 20 is adapted to a rest atop a portion 24 struck forwardly from the back wall of bracket 12 and to bear against bracket 12 just above portion 24 so as to retain support 14 in inclined writing position. Whenever it is desired to collapse support 14 into adjacency with bracket 12, prop 20 is lifted upwardly at its bight end, and support 14 then descends to be received over bracket 12 like a cover as shown in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 3.

The relationship between the tops of elements 12 and 14 is such that prop 20 cannot drop below portion 24.

' This is because portions 25 of bracket 12 form stops tence of stop portions 25 it is only necessary for a user to employ one hand when raising support 14 to its use position. This is because, as a user lifts upwardly and outwardly on the lower end of support 14, the bight end of prop 20will begin to descend, and will come to rest atop portion 24 just as support 14 contacts stops 25. This feature is particularly important since a user of my shelf often has one hand in use holding a telephone handset.

Also it is only necessary for a user to utilize one hand to cause support 14 to move to its folded or collapsed condition. This is because sufficient raising of the bight end of prop 20 will allow the front portion of support 14 to descend to its non-use position.

Support 14 is adapted to receive and hold writing material such as a spiral bound notebook 34 in the manner indicated in FIGS. 1 and 2. Brackets 26 and 28 upstanding from the face of support 14 receive an elongated headed rod 30 which is located in the opening defined by the spiral (helical) windings 32 of the notebook. Each sheet of the notebook is effectively backed by support 14 in a manner to permit writing only on one side thereof.

Bracket 26 is provided with slot 27 to allow the end of rod 30 adjacent thereto to be lifted out of bracket 26 so that a used notebook may be removed and a new notebook installed when desired.

Numeral 29 in FIGS. 1 and 2 denotes a combined stop and support member. Member 29 is adhesively bonded, or otherwise rigidly affixed to support 14 and serves two purposes. First, it assists in preventing the unattached side (in FIG. 2 the right-hand side) of the notebook's pages from sagging downwardly any substantial amount under the influences of gravity or writing pressures. Thus there is little tendency for the notebooks pages to be inadvertently torn free from spiral windings 32. Secondly, member 29 serves as a hand or wrist support for a user when he or she is writing on a page of the notebook.

Although member 29 is shown as being quite narrow (in a vertical sense as viewed in FIG. 2), it is obvious that the various dimensions of the disclosed shelf can be altered whereby support 14 can be elongated downwardly and member 29 can be made as wide (in the vertical sense previously mentioned) as desired.

A tab 36, see FIGS. 2 and 5, is mounted at the top of support 14 for the purpose of selectively holding down the upper right-hand corners of the sheets of notebook 34. This tab may take many forms, but is preferably formed of resilient metal or plastic. It may be secured to support 14 as, for example, by a headed pin 38 and spacer 37 which permit pivotal movement of tab 36 as indicated by the arrows in FIG. 2. Tab 36 is provided of sufiiciently resilient material to hold down the corners of the sheets of the notebook, as shown, by its own resilience. The arrows in FIG. 5 indicate the possible movement of tab 36 due to its own resilience.

Cut-out portions 40 in the side walls of bracket 12 permit the heads 22 of prop to be received therein.

The lower part 50 of wall bracket 12 terminates in upturned spaced portions 52. This is best seen in side elevation in FIG. 1 and in frontal elevation in FIG. 2. Portions 52 and part 50 define a cradle for holding a telephone handset 56 and further define a support for receiving a pencil 54.

The spacing between portions 52 is sufficient to permit pencil 54 to be manually grasped and removed between the thumb and forefinger when the handset is not present in such spacing. The pencil does not interfere with the telephone handset when such handset is cradled between portions 52, nor does the handset interfere with a pencil resting as seen in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The arrangement of bracket 12 is such that the telephone handset 56 and pencil 54 are not in inteference even when support 14 is collapsed or folded into its non-use or closed position with respect to bracket 12.

The various parts of my novel shelf may be made of any suitable materials. or example, sheet metal is suitable for parts 12 and 4.

I have disclosed a unique folding wall shelf having special utility in conjunction with a telephone. This shelf includes a writing support, a telephone cradle, and a pencil support.

I have disclosed a preferred embodiment, but, obviously, variations may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of my invention. For example, my shelf can be widened so that both sides of the notebooks pages can be written on, if desired. My invention is defined by the scope of the claims which follow.

I claim:

1. A folding wall shelf comprising: a bracket adapted to be secured to a wall in an upright position; said bracket having an outwardly extending stop intermediate the ends thereof; a writing support; means pivotally mounting an upper portion of the support to the bracket so that said support can be swung from a substantially vertical collapsed position to a predetermined inclined position; prop means operatively associated with said support and said bracket for retaining said support in said predetermined inclined position or permitting said support to be collapsed into substantial parallelism with said bracket when said support is in its collapsed position, said prop means having one portion thereof pivoted to said support, and having another free end-including portion thereof adapted to lie above said one portion when said support is in its collpased position and to swing downwardly and into engagement with the stop on said bracket when said support is swung to said predetermined inclined position; and second stop means positioned above said pivotal mounting means and including and inclined edge on said bracket engageable by a portion on said support for preventing said support from being swung beyond said predetermined position; and for preventing said another free end-including portion of said prop means from moving downwardly beyond said stop on said bracket; the distance between the point at which said one portion is pivoted and said stop on said bracket being less than the length of said prop means from said point to the extremity of said free end-including portion when said support portion is engaging said inclined edge.

2. The combination of claim 1 including means on said shelf for holding articles used in communications.

3. The combination of claim 2, said holding means including elongated means connected to said support and adapted to be passed through the spiral binding of a notebook to secure said notebook to said support.

4. The combination of claim 2, said holding means including means on said bracket for holding a pencil.

5. The combination of claim 2, said holding means including means on said bracket for holding a telephone handset.

6; The combination of claim 2 including means on said support for holding a notebook and means on said bracket for holding a pencil and a telephone handset.

7. The combination of claim 6, said holding means on said bracket comprising an arcuate bifurcated portion.

8. The combination of claim 3 including means on said support for preventing the curling of the pages of a notebook.

9. The combination of claim 7 including combined auxiliary support and stop means on said writing support for providing a rest for a portion of a user's anatbook from sagging. 

1. A folding wall shelf comprising: a bracket adapted to be secured to a wall in an upright position; said bracket having an outwardly extending stop intermediate the ends thereof; a writing support; means pivotally mounting an upper portion of the support to the bracket so that said support can be swung from a substantially vertical collapsed position to a pre-determined inclined position; prop means operatively associated with said support and said bracket for retaining said support in said predetermined inclined position or permitting said support to be collapsed into substantial parallelism with said bracket when said support is in its collapsed position, said prop means having one portion thereof pivoted to said support, and having another free end-including portion thereof adapted to lie above said one portion when said support is in its collpased position and to swing downwardly and into engagement with the stop on said bracket when said support is swung to said predetermined inclined position; and second stop means positioned above said pivotal mounting means and including and inclined edge on said bracket engageable by a portion on said support for preventing said support from being swung beyond said predetermined position; and for preventing said another free end-including portion of said prop means from moving downwardly beyond said stop on said bracket; the distance between the point at which said one portion is pivoted and said stop on said bracket being less than the length of said prop means from said point to the extremity of said free end-including portion when said support portion is engaging said inclined edge.
 2. The combination of claim 1 including means on said shelf for holding articles used in communications.
 3. The combination of claim 2, said holding means including elongated means connected to said support and adapted to be passed through the spiral binding of a notebook to secure said notebook to said support.
 4. The combination of claim 2, said holding means including means on said bracket for holding a pencil.
 5. The combination of claim 2, said holding means including means on said bracket for holding a telephone handset.
 6. The combination of claim 2 including means on said support for holding a notebook and means on said bracket for holding a pencil and a telephone handset.
 7. The combination of claim 6, said holding means on said bracket comprising an arcuate bifurcated portion.
 8. The combination of claim 3 including means on said support for preventing the curling of the pages of a notebook.
 9. The combination of claim 7 including combined auxiliary support and stop means on said writing support for providing a rest for a portion of a user''s anatomy and for preventing an unbound side of said notebook from sagging. 